The Yuanshan "Robot" Lantern Festival is full of creativity: A 4.5-meter-tall robot lantern can even change facial expressions

▲ This year’s "Yuanshan Lantern Festival" takes robots as its theme. The creatively designed giant red robot main lantern not only glows at night, but its facial LED expressions also change dynamically—making it incredibly fun. (Photo / Courtesy ofLandscape Tales 'Yuanshan Leisure' Fan Page, the same below)

Tourism Center / Comprehensive Report

If you're tired of seeing lanterns themed around the zodiac animal of the year or traditional lantern designs during festive light displays, the Yuanshan Lantern Festival in Yilan County might offer you a refreshing new visual experience. This long-running event has this year adopted a "robot" theme, featuring not only a nearly 5-meter-tall giant red robot as the main lantern but also more than 300 handcrafted small lanterns made by local children—adorable and imaginative alike.

The "Yuanshan Lantern Festival," which has been held for over 10 years, was suspended last year due to construction projects by Yilan County Government but makes its comeback this year. Organized by the Yuanshan Township Office, this year they invited Mr. Akibo (Li Mingdao), winner of the Ministry of Culture’s 2nd Public Art Award and Best Creative Performance Award, to bring his creativity into play. By combining modern technology with tradition, he created a 4.5-meter-tall robot named "Yuanshan HOPE," serving as the main lantern of this year’s festival.

▲ Another main lantern, the "Light Bug Robot," can store power through its two solar panels and glow at night.

Li Mingdao said that although Yuanshan Township is not large, he felt the vitality, hard work, and hope for the future among its residents. That inspired him to create a large-scale piece themed around “HOPE.” The robot features specially made LED facial expression modules, allowing it to display a variety of expressions. In addition, there is a second main lantern, the 180-centimeter-tall, 400-kilogram "Light Bug Robot," which also stores power via two solar panels. Over ten sets of robot-themed lanterns will appear at the festival.

Yuanshan Township Mayor Jiang Yonghe mentioned that this year’s lantern festival also involved 350 local children co-creating lantern works titled "My Dream Robot," including Spider-Man, Thomas the Tank Engine, Superman, and even the Panda family.

The Yuanshan Lantern Festival will be held from January 30 (New Year’s Eve) to February 16 at Yuanshan Park. Every evening from 5:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., there will be a light show every 30 minutes. On Valentine’s Day, which also coincides with the Lantern Festival, the band Chairman will perform live, accompanied by a spectacular fireworks display.

The robots "%Ji???Batsu" (left image) and "Tani" (right image) will also be exhibited at the Yuanshan Lantern Festival.